ECOWAS Ignores Calls For Infrastructure Investment, Instead Blames Climate Change And Recommends Increased Disaster Budgeting

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has ignored calls for infrastructure investments and instead urged West African governments to increase disaster management budgets to address the frequent disasters affecting 75 per cent of the region.

Speaking at the mid-term consultative meeting of the Regional Committee for Disaster Management in West Africa in Abuja on Tuesday, the Commission also blamed climate change as the cause of the adverse impact of disasters in the region.

According to Frank Nansam-Aggrey, the Deputy Director of the Climate Change Department, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Ghana, West African countries need to go the extra mile to decisively budget for disaster issues, stating that disaster occurrences occasioned by natural and artificial hazard events have increased in the past three decades.

He further said that as climate change factors continue to worsen extreme weather events, people’s vulnerabilities will equally increase, leading to negative financial implications for member countries. According to him, this confirms the conclusion that the extent of vulnerability to hazards in the sub-region accounts for the disaster devastations experienced annually by countries in the region amid inadequate public financing to maintain and enhance resilience or provide relief assistance for disaster victims.

Echoing Nansam-Aggrey, ECOWAS Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Division, Mohammed Ibrahim blamed climate change for the severe impacts of disasters in West Africa and the Sahel region.

He stated that due to the adverse effects of climate change, the magnitude of vulnerability and exposure to hazards and losses from disasters is expected to continue increasing over the next decade.

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